David Rosner (80), the co-author of Deadly Dust and Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution and former director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health passed away from pneumonia and myasthenia gravis on May 25. Rosner served on the editorial board of the Journal of Public Health Policy, the Journal of Scientific Practice and Integrity, and Environmental Justice. He has also been an advisory editor for the University of Rochester's Press Series focusing on the study of medical history. He is survived by his children Zachary and Molly, his wife Dr. Kathlyn Conway, a psychotherapist and an author, in New York City, his books and his message for an
asbestos-free world.
I remember reading Rosner's
2017
paper "Deregulating Safety: The Case of the Effort to Ban Asbestos".
I
learnt from his paper that asbestos was used as “snow” in Hollywood
movies like The Wizard of Oz and as an ingredient in Kent Cigarettes’
Micronite Filters. Trump was sued by Polish immigrants in New York City.
The workers said they were forced to work in “clouds of choking
asbestos dust without protective equipment.” Trump fought the suit for
17 years before settling in 1999 for an undisclosed amount. Trump's
book, Art of the Comeback (
1997) claims asbestos was “100 percent safe” and “the movement against asbestos was led by the mob”! Rosner recognized how lunacy manifests itself in myriad ways.
I also learnt from an article published by International Ban Asbestos Secretariat (IBAS) in April 2026 that The Lancet expressed
its shock and retracted an unsigned 1997 commentary because of a
discovery made by Rosner and Gerald Markowitz who provided evidence
about the dubious text of the commentary was written by a consultant
paid by Johnson & Johnson. The anonymous author of the commentary had shared the draft with company
officials and made changes based on their comments minimizing hazard
posed by the use of
asbestos laden personal hygiene products. The discovery regarding the dubious commentary in The Lancet, one of world most reputed medical journals is a lesson which must be taught in all the schools of journalism, law and medicine.
Ban
Asbestos Network of India (BANI) mourns his death. His message for an
asbestos-free world will remain alive. Rosner did a great service to humanity by creating https://www.toxicdocs.org/, a website which has millions of pages of previously secret documents about toxic substances. The
present and future generations will remember Rosner everytime they
search for toxic papers which hide the truth about
the deteriorating state of public health.
Gopal Krishna
Ban Asbestos Network of India (BANI)
